Photovoltaic (PV) cells, commonly known as solar cells, are devices for conversion of solar radiation into electrical energy. Generally, solar radiation impinging on the surface of, and entering into, the substrate of a solar cell creates electron and hole pairs in the bulk of the substrate. The electron and hole pairs migrate to p-doped and n-doped regions in the substrate, thereby creating a voltage differential between the doped regions. The doped regions are connected to the conductive regions on the solar cell to direct an electrical current from the cell to an external circuit. When PV cells are combined in an array such as a PV module, the electrical energy collected from all of the PV cells can be combined in series and parallel arrangements to provide power with a certain voltage and current.
The costs associated with installation of PV components within a PV system may be broken into hard costs and soft costs. Hard costs are easily identifiable as those costs associated with equipment, such as PV panels microinverters, cabling, support framing, and so on. Soft costs relate to those costs that may not be easily identifiable, such as installer overhead costs, permitting costs, start-up testing, and local compliance issues. One such soft cost may include unique installation particulars for each site and can include the termination of cables or wires from a chain of multiple microinverters of a PV system to prevent electric shock hazards to handlers of the equipment and to prevent unwanted exposure to weather for the equipment itself.